Resident moved to protect southern rebel (9)
I believe the answer is:
dissenter
'rebel' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'resident moved to protect southern' is the wordplay.
'moved' is an anagram indicator.
'to protect' indicates putting letters inside.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'resident' with letters rearranged gives 'disenter'.
'disenter' enclosing 's' is 'DISSENTER'.
(Other definitions for dissenter that I've seen before include "One who disagrees among residents" , "As protester" , "One who disagrees out of tiredness" , "One who differs among residents" , "A non-orthodox" .)